Environments that use avatars to represent users typically provide avatar creation tools. Creation of an avatar frequently takes several steps and can be quite labor intensive. Moreover, an avatar created in one environment is often limited to that environment. Environment, in such a context, broadly means any environment where an avatar may be manifested. For example, an environment may be an avatar creation application, video game, social networking website, messaging application, smartphone address book, or any other application where a user may want to have a representation.
Despite the apparent inefficiency of creating avatars, invoking a multiplicity of avatars, each representing the same user, serves a practical purpose. As noted by Blackstock et al. in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/979,974, (published as US 2014/0160149 A1 and entitled “System and Method for Adaptable Avatars”) just as in real life, digital users exist in multiple contexts and may require different identities in different environments.
There are tools that, once an avatar is made, enable users to use the same avatar in multiple environments, such as one disclosed by Mason et al. in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/279,643 (published as US 2010/0011422 A1). However, the mechanisms disclosed by Mason et al. require an avatar to be rendered identically in each environment. While Blackstock et al. in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/979,974 attempt to address such shortcomings, the tools for making an avatar for a user and customizing such avatars for such purposes remain unsatisfactory.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a solution to address at least some of these limitations.